Equality and inequality

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Equality and inequality

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to the letter you published in your paper concerning 'poverty' by a hard working citizen. I wish to disagree on many of the points that this reader has made.

It seems that the person who wrote this letter is misinformed about what poverty actually is. The kind of poverty the reader is talking about is 'relative poverty' in relation to this country. The reader says, "Some people can't even afford a car," but the poverty the reader hears about on the television and in newspapers in third world countries is 'absolute poverty'. This is where people have to focus all of their energy on just staying alive. The reader refers to third world countries as "so called poor," but they are in fact extremely poor. World vision (1991) states "800 million people are in absolute poverty" where they can't afford food or cloths. http://www.cafod.org.uk states "4.4 billion people live in developing countries. Of these: three fifths lack basic sanitation, a third don't have access to clean water, a quarter don't have adequate housing, a fifth have no access to modern health services, a fifth of